NOSOCOMIAL TRANSMISSION OF AN AVIAN-LIKE ROTAVIRUS STRAIN AMONG CHILDREN IN BELEM, BRAZIL

An atypical group-A rotavirus strain, with an electrophoretype display ing 5 segments in the first dsRNA size class, was detected among 3 hos pitalized children less than 2 years old. Detection occurred initially 24 h after admission in a non-diarrhoeic child hospitalized because o f acute respiratory infection. The second detection involved a child w ho occupied a different room within the same ward and who developed no socomial diarrhoea 48 h later. A third case, also of hospital-acquired diarrhoea, was recorded in a child who occupied a bed in the same roo m as the second case and developed gastroenteritis 24 h following the second case's detection. In addition to the unusual, avian-like genomi c profile, the strain was classified as serotype 2, based on a human V P7-specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The question of whether these events reflect either a genomic rearrangement of a huma n rotavirus strain or a possible interspecies transmission will be fur ther investigated through hybridization assays.